Six Days in Fallujah - A military shooter about a real battle in the Iraq War, back from the dead and more controversial than ever

[Emperor Julian]

You know what fascinates me is the idea of a sell by date on historical war, that their's a sell by date on war crimes and taste. For example nobody gives a shit that the Norse vikings are sanitized in assasins creed but the personal horror of us troops in a morally dubious war is off limits?
Have any of these retards actually asked some an boni fied iraqi for their opinion instead of some fucking middle class swede?

 

[The tired cat]

Ya know, what I find somewhat funny? Okay, so these clowns are crying about "MUH 'MURICA DID WAR CRIMES IN IRAQ!! REEE!!!! TALK ABOUT DEM WARCRIMES!!!!" and yet...I never see these numbnuts cry say about the fucked up shit Americans and Vietcongs did in 'Nam, I never see them demand a game about that, I never see 'em demand a game that shows the side of NVA/Vietcong.

 

[Foltest]

You know what fascinates me is the idea of a sell by date on historical war, that their's a sell by date on war crimes and taste. For example nobody gives a shit that the Norse vikings are sanitized in assasins creed but the personal horror of us troops in a morally dubious war is off limits?
Have any of these retards actually asked some an boni fied iraqi for their opinion instead of some fucking middle class swede?

False. Iraqis aren’t middle class. They are drug pushers or welfare queen.

 

[Tepes Thot]

Ya know, what I find somewhat funny? Okay, so these clowns are crying about "MUH 'MURICA DID WAR CRIMES IN IRAQ!! REEE!!!! TALK ABOUT DEM WARCRIMES!!!!" and yet...I never see these numbnuts cry say about the fucked up shit Americans and Vietcongs did in 'Nam, I never see them demand a game about that, I never see 'em demand a game that shows the side of NVA/Vietcong.

Or how they cheer on warmonger presidents as long as they have the right letter by their title, but wanna cry about this. Who do they think authorizes these wars and actions???

Their savior Biden is already bombing, yet they put his name on the petition.

 

[Alter Ego]

Have any of these retards actually asked some an boni fied iraqi for their opinion instead of some fucking middle class swede?

Apparently not, the closest being the recent IGN article that queries "those connected to the real events" as I mentioned in my previous post, which some game journos at other outlets make reference to. In particular, there's this critic:

Yifat Shaik, an Iraqi-Jewish game development professor, specifically called out the game's marketing for resembling military propaganda, analyzing this tweet from Victura as an example.

"This image is selling you the idea that the soldiers are brave and are going to fight the bad guy, or are going to encounter something dangerous. It does not show the fact that it's a house and it is very likely that the people on the other side are civilians and are very likely going to be killed.

"It sells you the idea that the soldiers are brave and that their cause is just without showing you if their fear is justified or not. We do not see what they are encountering, the enemy is faceless and voiceless...It's propaganda because it is telling you (and this is true for all the gifs and images they have on Twitter) that they are the good guys and that they are fighting a nameless enemy. It is there to sell you the idea of war being just and that the US Army [are] the good guys in this case. If I reverse this, and those would have been Iraqi soldiers or insurgents, our reaction would be a lot different.

"Basically when we look at a piece of media we have to ask ourselves: What is it trying to tell us? Who is it serving? Who will have the most to gain from the acceptance of this media is the truth?...I would argue that it is not the Iraqi civilians."

So a job well done in speaking with an actual Iraqi, right? Well, not really, when the article later says:

Shaik, who is also an Israeli military veteran, believes that military games frequently tend to gloss over the true horrors of war as well as the often mundane realities of most military jobs. It’s a purposeful move used as a tool for military recruitment, she said. She offers America's Army (with its tagline "The Official Game of the US Army") as an example of this, while others we spoke to pointed out various partnerships between the US military and games like Call of Duty over the years to generally promote and portray the military in a positive, heroic light, all from the safety and comfort of a player's living room.

"The reality portrayed in video games is not the reality of war or combat itself," Shaik said. "You can take a game like Six Days in Fallujah and [portray the player as] a hero, a soldier fighting there. But it's probably not what was really there, and...you don't come out of battle happy or safe or feeling comfortable."

Wait, an Israeli veteran? Whatever happened to being Iraqi? Just who exactly is this Yifat Shaik person? Well, simple Googling reveals that she works at a Canadian university and has been in Canada since starting graduate school in 2012. She says so herself on Twitter that she was otherwise raised in Israel (most certainly born there) by an upper middle-class family. Also keep in mind that Israel mandates military service, so "Israeli veteran" is effectively redundant, and all she did was fix computers. She seems to hate Israel on a general basis anyway.

So where does the Iraqi part come in? Well, she's actually just half-Iraqi, her dad being the actual Iraqi-Jew who left Iraq for Israel when he was two years old as part of a greater exodus of Jews from Iraq in the early 50's due to increasing antisemitic discrimination and violence, which Yifat blames on Europe. Though she has talked about having an extensive Iraqi family on her dad's side, it seems that her contact with them is minimal.

So if the presented-Iraqi critic has major caveats to being Iraqi, what does that say about the others IGN says are "connected to the real events" of Six Days in Fallujah?

One's only specified as a "Muslim game developer we spoke to with family ties in the Middle East." Nothing that can be assessed further here due to anonymity, but it's already being said as much that this person has not personally lived in the Middle East.

We have Anita Sarkeesian, who we obviously know well enough to be suspect in anything she says. Going in to her ethnic and national history, she's well known to be ethnically Armenian, though she's born and raised in Canada, eventually moving to California. Both of her parents are Armenians who moved to Canada from Iraq in the 70's. So there is a generational connection between Anita and Iraq, but she has no apparent first-hand experience in Iraq.

Lee Hammoud appears to be genuinely Arab-Lebanese as stated. Lives in Lebanon and everything. But still, his supposed connection to Fallujah is only insofar as being Arabic.

I have no reason to doubt that John Phipps was a US Marine who actually fought in the Second Battle of Fallujah as claimed, though it's at least worth noting that the specifics of his military record has apparently been called to question before. It just feels like he's been picked out as the token veteran for game journalists to counteract the consulting veterans who are the basis for Six Days in Fallujah, and that comes from John himself being a game journalist with a clear anti-US military bent. Ironically, though, this white American is by all means more qualified to speak on Fallujah than anyone else in this article.

Lastly, there's Alex. Just Alex, supposed Lebanese-Arab game developer. At first, you may suspect that this first-name-only basis was chosen for anonymity. similar to the unnamed Muslim. However, it turns out that this is none other than Dina Abou Karam, the infamous SJW English community manager for Mighty No. 9. Some time ago, she changed her name to Alex, including de-emphasis on her last name, when she decided that she's "non-binary." It appears that she was indeed born and raised Lebonese, has otherwise lived elsewhere for most of the past decade. Not Iraqi.

Well this has turned out to be a learning experience to see how there's often more than meets the eye when it comes to who gets quoted for an article.

 

[Serbian Peacekeepers]

Apparently not, the closest being the recent IGN article that queries "those connected to the real events" as I mentioned in my previous post, which some game journos at other outlets make reference to. In particular, there's this critic:

Of course they can't interview people actually there , most of them can't speak english , the ones that do would just say "Bro who gives a shit?" , and the ones that would say what they wanted didn't live there during the battle(s)

 

[HeyYou]

Apparently not, the closest being the recent IGN article that queries "those connected to the real events" as I mentioned in my previous post, which some game journos at other outlets make reference to. In particular, there's this critic:


So a job well done in speaking with an actual Iraqi, right? Well, not really, when the article later says:


Wait, an Israeli veteran? Whatever happened to being Iraqi? Just who exactly is this Yifat Shaik person? Well, simple Googling reveals that she works at a Canadian university and has been in Canada since starting graduate school in 2012. She says so herself on Twitter that she was otherwise raised in Israel (most certainly born there) by an upper middle-class family. Also keep in mind that Israel mandates military service, so "Israeli veteran" is pretty much an oxymoron, and all she did was fix computers. She seems to hate Israel on a general basis anyway.

So where does the Iraqi part come in? Well, she's actually just half-Iraqi, her dad being the actual Iraqi-Jew who left Iraq for Israel when he was two years old as part of a greater exodus of Jews from Iraq in the early 50's due to increasing antisemitic discrimination and violence, which Yifat blames on Europe. Though she has talked about having an extensive Iraqi family on her dad's side, it seems that her contact with them is minimal.

So if the presented-Iraqi critic has major caveats to being Iraqi, what does that say about the others IGN says are "connected to the real events" of Six Days in Fallujah?

One's only specified as a "Muslim game developer we spoke to with family ties in the Middle East." Nothing that can be assessed further here due to anonymity, but it's already being said as much that this person has not personally lived in the Middle East.

We have Anita Sarkeesian, who we obviously know well enough to be suspect in anything she says. Going in to her ethnic and national history, she's well known to be ethnically Armenian, though she's born and raised in Canada, eventually moving to California. Both of her parents are Armenians who moved to Canada from Iraq in the 70's. So there is a generational connection between Anita and Iraq, but she has no apparent first-hand experience in Iraq.

Lee Hammoud appears to be genuinely Arab-Lebanese as stated. Lives in Lebanon and everything. But still, his supposed connection to Fallujah is only insofar as being Arabic.

I have no reason to doubt that John Phipps was a US Marine who actually fought in the Second Battle of Fallujah as claimed, though it's at least worth noting that the specifics of his military record has apparently been called to question before. It just feels like he's been picked out as the token veteran for game journalists to counteract the consulting veterans who are the basis for Six Days in Fallujah, and that comes from John himself being a game journalist with a clear anti-US military bent. Ironically, though, this white American is by all means more qualified to speak on Fallujah than anyone else in this article.

Lastly, there's Alex. Just Alex, supposed Lebanese-Arab game developer. At first, you may suspect that this first-name-only basis was chosen for anonymity. similar to the unnamed Muslim. However, it turns out that this is none other than Dina Abou Karam, the infamous SJW English community manager for Mighty No. 9. Some time ago, she changed her name to Alex, including de-emphasis on her last name, when she decided that she's "non-binary." It appears that she was indeed born and raised Lebonese, has otherwise lived elsewhere for most of the past decade. Not Iraqi.

Well this has turned out to be a learning experience to see how there's often more than meets the eye when it comes to who gets quoted for an article.

Yep, when I posted that article I should have realized Phipps was the whiny bitch who complained about white phosphorus in Modern Warfare and Alex was the infamous Mighty No 9 Community Manager. Game journalists are so incestuous.

 

[Alter Ego]

Apparently, within the week following the exclusive gameplay trailer, IGN published another article by Rebekah Valentine, the author of the previous article of critic interviews:

This time, it's just a direct demonstration of her personal vendetta against the game as she does a text-based play-by-play of the gameplay trailer, essentially a longer version of Rami Ismail's reaction video including downplay of the Iraqi civilian portion. When compared with viewing the trailer firsthand, the extent of disinformation Rebekah espouses to lambast the game and its depiction of US soldiers is remarkable, particularly in her apparent denial that a terroristic insurgency even existed. Deceptions include:

• Omitting the detail that the initial figure in the alleyway is clearly armed, as well as lying that he dies when he rather disappears in retreat.
• Omitting the detail that the "distant figures in a house across a street" are not only armed, but also fire first.
• Omitting the detail that the later "distant and nondescript targets" are also armed and fire first.
• Lying that the player is "attacked by some unseen enemy" in the basement civilian encounter when no such thing happens.

A beefy editor's note is also included at the beginning of the article, IGN apparently groveling with the notion that they were being too nice towards the game despite already having published Rebekah's first article:

Editor’s note: Earlier this week, we shared the first look at gameplay in Six Days in Fallujah, a game that has been the topic of heavy criticism due in large part to the subject matter itself, as well as its portrayal of what are very real, very recent, and very painful memories for the Iraqi and Arab communities.

This new asset followed shortly after we published a lengthy report that both detailed the context of why The Second Battle of Fallujah is a painful subject and black mark on the US’s history, as well as shared the perspectives of the Arab community who have close ties to the war, and to the communities affected by that war. We did so in the hopes that we could capture the larger conversation happening around the game for our readers. We believe it’s our responsibility to give you the necessary context and lens by which to view and consider the contents of the game to make those judgments for yourselves.

But our packaging and rollout of the trailer earlier this week contributed to a tonal disconnect with our reporting, as well as our increasing concerns around the intentions of the game, and it was a disservice to our readers to not frame and present the news of a first in-game look at Six Days in Fallujah within that larger context and conversation. We wanted to take the time to reshare and reframe this new point of reference with our readers, to apologize for the original misrepresentation, and to remind you all of the valuable voices and perspectives from our sources who took the time to speak to us and share an important side of the conversation.

In immediately recent news being reported across many game journo outlets, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), self-described as the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, is publicly petitioning Microsoft, Sony, and Valve to bar Six Days in Fallujah from their gaming platforms, including citation of Rebekah's first IGN article:

In a statement, CAIR Research and Advocacy Coordinator Huzaifa Shahbaz said:

“We call on Microsoft, Sony and Valve to ban their platforms from hosting ‘Six Days in Fallujah,’ an Arab murder simulator that will only normalize violence against Muslims in America and around the world.”

“The gaming industry must stop dehumanizing Muslims. Video games like Six Days in Fallujah only serve to glorify violence that took the lives of hundreds of Iraqi civilians, justify the Iraq war, and reinforce anti-Muslim sentiment at a time when anti-Muslim bigotry continues to threaten human life.”

 

[The tired cat]

Stop dehumanizing Muslims? Fucker, where the shit was you when we had games like CoD4, MW2, Full Spectrum Warrior, C&C Generals/Zero Hour.

 

[White Devil]

Hard to dehumanize something that wasn't human in the first place.

 

[The Grognard]

Man, the powers that be really want to sink this game.

 

[The Last Stand]

In immediately recent news being reported across many game journo outlets, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), self-described as the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, is publicly petitioning Microsoft, Sony, and Valve to bar Six Days in Fallujah from their gaming platforms, including citation of Rebekah's first IGN article:

How long before World War II games are forbidden?

I guess having games based on actual events is prohibited. Why not movies? Or books?

 

[José Mourinho]

If this game allows you to go and murder every single Iraqi civilian everywhere then maybe I can see the reason behind the uproar, but the issue seems to be more towards the background of the game rather than the content.

This controversy is stupid and even stupider for trying to involve Joe Biden in this who has actually bombed Syria leading to deaths.

 

[SausageBayonet]

What the hell? A journo with a decent take on the situation!?
https://archive.md/hAsLC
To be fair if memory serves Erik Kain has at least some history of non-retarded takes.

 

[The Doom Slayer]

Colin Moriarty is having a battle with that dipshit Rami over this.

 

[José Mourinho]

Colin Moriarty is having a battle with that dipshit Rami over this.

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Even if Rami is a random dude, he literally mentioned a social media account that involves a game journalism website to call for Microsoft/Sony/Valve to ban the game from their platforms.

What kind of fool does Rami take us for? Also lol "erasing and intentionally censoring the voice of war crime victims" when the game literally has interviewed civilians over the incident.

 

[White Devil]

I find it funny this dipshit thinks Valve would ban something so mundane.

 

[Foltest]

Rami is deserving more and more a thread.

 

[Gezkill]

My mind is still blown by this. I'm seeing the same people who lambasted Jack Thompson back in 2003 regarding the GTA lawsuits pulling the same stunt.

If my head would explode it would have taken out the western continent of the states.

 

[Chin of Campbell]

I'll probably pick this up when it comes out just to see what the hubbub is about. Thanks, journalists!